Democracy Now! has interviewed many Right Livelihood Award recipients over the years. Democracy Now! host Amy Goodman is the first journalist to receive the Right Livelihood Award, widely known as the "Alternative Nobel Prize" for “developing an innovative model of truly independent grassroots political journalism that brings to millions of people the alternative voices that are often excluded by the mainstream media.”

As the warmest year on record comes to a close, we end the last show of 2014 with climate activist and author Bill McKibben. He recently announced he is stepping down from the daily leadership of the climate action group 350.org, which he co-founded in 2007 and where he has been a leading voice warning of the dangers of not confronting global warming. He says he will remain a senior adviser and active member of the board, keeping 90 percent of...

The Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai, the first African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, died on Sunday at the age of 71 after a battle with cancer. In 1977, she spearheaded the struggle against state-backed deforestation in Kenya and founded the Green Belt Movement, which has planted tens of millions of trees in the country. She has also been an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and democratic development. In 1984 ,she won...

Mycle Schneider, a Paris-based independent consultant on energy and nuclear policy, received the Right Livelihood Award in 1997 for "serving to alert the world to the unparalleled dangers of plutonium to human life." Democracy Now! interviewed him at the 2010 Right Livelihood Awards in Bonn, Germany. [includes rush transcript]

Alyn Ware received the Right Livelihood Award in 2009 for leading initiatives in peace education and nuclear abolition in his native New Zealand and around the world for the past twenty-five years. Democracy Now! met up with him at the 2010 Right Livelihood Awards in Bonn, Germany.

Longtime activist Nnimmo Bassey has been awarded the 2010 Right Livelihood Award for "revealing the full ecological and human horrors of oil production" by multinational corporations in Nigeria and for his leadership in advocating environmental justice and human rights throughout the world. During his speech, Bassey blasted rich nations for their efforts to use carbon markets as a mechanism to mitigate global warming. [includes rush...

We look at the case of Munir Thalib, an Indonesian human rights activist and a prominent critic of the Indonesian government and military. He was poisoned to death aboard a flight to Holland in September 2004. An off-duty pilot was found guilty for his death, but prosecutors ignored the findings of an independent investigation that pointed to the involvement of Indonesia’s State Intelligence Agency. We speak with his widow, Suciwati...

Hermann Scheer, one of the world’s leading advocates for solar power, has died at the age of sixty-six. The German economist and politician helped make Germany a renewable energy powerhouse and inspired many across the world to expand the use of solar power. Scheer had been member of the German Parliament for three decades and was the president of EUROSOLAR, the European Association for Renewable Energy. In 1999, he won the Right...

While President Obama is reporting looking into tapping a former corporate executive to become his next top economic adviser, many economists question the path the United States is on. We speak to the acclaimed Chilean economist Manfred Max-Neef. He won the Right Livelihood Award in 1983, two years after the publication of his book Outside Looking In: Experiences in Barefoot Economics. [includes rush transcript]